SOA students stir: Edu minister, LoP call for action against culprits

Bhubaneswar: Students who are agitating against the fake placement issue at SOA University have received support of the state government and the Opposition as well. While Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra today said he would raise the issue in the Assembly, Higher Education Minister Ananta Das said the government will take action against culprits.

Opposition leader Mishra said allegations of fake recruitment have been coming up against many institutions and agencies of late. “Action should be taken against all organisations conducting such fake placement drives. There is also scope for action to be taken under law and to bring the matter under the purview of law effectively, amendments can also be made by the state government,” Mishra said.

The Congress leader also said that if a representation of students with definite examples of such incidents approaches him, he would raise the issue in Assembly and put pressure on the state government to take action as per legal provision.

Meanwhile, Higher Education minister Das has also said the state government would consider the action as per law in cases of fake placement drives. “While action will be taken against culprits if anything unlawful has happened, the educational institutions must be careful regarding fake companies playing with the future of students during their campus selection drives,” said Das.

Students of SOA have been agitating since the last two days after around 50 students, who were selected by Gurgaon-based Huawei during a recruitment drive in the university, found their offer letters fake and returned without getting jobs. The company officials told them that it has not conducted any recruitment drive in the university. Not only Huawei, as many as 400 students were also given offer letters from companies like Mitsubishi, Intel and Honeywell that are allegedly fake.